Iraqi oil: Once seen as U.S. boon, now it's mostly China's

Well judging by the article it seems it's not for want of the oil that American companies aren't as involved rather the entire wrecking of the
country has made business more risky.

Iraq remains highly unstable in terms of security, infrastructure and politics. Chinese state-owned oil companies appear more willing to put up
with that than Americans are.

So the Chinese are willing to take more risks to get the oil. The situation is dangerous due to the legacy of the invasion, it's not that the U.S. is
disinterested in the oil.

The war devastated Iraq’s oil industry, as kidnappings, sabotage and attacks on infrastructure made it virtually impossible to do
business.

It’s a different story, though, for the U.S. oil field services and engineering companies that have established dominant positions in Iraq. That
includes Haliburton, the company that Iraq war booster Dick Cheney led before he became vice president.

The most profitable places in the world to work as an oil company are the North American unconventional fields – such as shale deposits in the
Eastern U.S. – and the deepwater fields in West Africa or the Gulf of Mexico, Houser said. China has limited opportunities in those places, he said,
with the state-owned oil company PetroChina lacking the technological sophistication needed for deepwater production.

“The fact that (PetroChina) is expanding in Iraq is not to me a sign of their strength, it’s a sign of their relative weakness,” Houser
said.

Oil companies from the U.S. and other Western nations have been more interested in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, a largely autonomous area that
doesn’t take orders from Baghdad. Kurdistan offers more stability and better contract terms to the international oil companies, to the fury of the
Baghdad government, which is charged with handling international affairs and calls the contracts illegal.

Ah so the oil companies want a free reign and don't like being told what to do. Now it's making sense!

Luft said he didn’t see Chinese development of Iraq’s oil as a case of China enjoying the spoils of a war for which the U.S. had paid dearly
both in lives and taxpayer dollars.

It’s a myth that U.S. energy security relies on Middle Eastern imports, he said. Oil from the region makes up just a small percentage of what
America uses. The U.S. will benefit if China or anyone else can get Iraqi’s huge reserves developed and onto the market, he said.

Since oil is a global commodity, he said, more oil on the market brings down prices. “Energy security is about not only the availability of the
resource but also about the cost,” Luft said. “Anything that brings down global oil prices is positive for U.S. energy security.”

Oil companies from the U.S. and other Western nations have been more interested in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, a largely autonomous area that
doesn’t take orders from Baghdad. Kurdistan offers more stability and better contract terms to the international oil companies, to the fury of the
Baghdad government, which is charged with handling international affairs and calls the contracts illegal.

No it doesn't say Iraq wasn't over oil. It says that it's a myth that U.S. energy security relies on oil imports from the Middle East.

The end of the article tells you all you need to know mate. I posted it already as I keep saying.

It’s a myth that U.S. energy security relies on Middle Eastern imports, he said. Oil from the region makes up just a small percentage of what
America uses. The U.S. will benefit if China or anyone else can get Iraqi’s huge reserves developed and onto the market, he said. Since oil is a
global commodity, he said, more oil on the market brings down prices. “Energy security is about not only the availability of the resource but also
about the cost,” Luft said. “Anything that brings down global oil prices is positive for U.S. energy security.”

Very embarrassing that you keep conveniently ignoring this very telling extract from the very article you posted a link to.

WASHINGTON — Ten years after the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, the country’s oil industry is poised to boom and make the troubled
nation the No.2 oil exporter in the world. But the nation that’s moving to take advantage of Iraq’s riches isn’t the United States. It’s
China.

What part of China getting the majority of Iraqi oil are some people having problems grasping?

The weak argument about Saddam might possibly maybe support terrorists at some distant point in the future

Really now?

In 1998, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was his Islamic duty -- an integral
part of his jihad. Systemically, over the course of decades, he dispatched his top lieutenants to attempt to purchase or develop nuclear and
biochemical WMD. He has never given up the goal; indeed, in a 2007 video, he repeated his promise to use massive weapons to upend the global status
quo, destroy the capitalist hegemony, and help create an Islamic caliphate

In November 2003, a United Nations report said that Al-Qaida planned to use chemical and biological weapons in a future attack and the only thing
that holding them back was “the technical complexity to operate them properly and effectively.”

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.